* Exactly how it does this is another matter altogether. It’s not really established yet, and the details involving conscious influence over memory encoding and retrieval, self-oriented filtering of perception and numerous other relevant processes that may play a role probably warrant a book all of their own.
? A lecturer once told me that one of the few things that HM did learn was where the cookies were stored. But he never had any memory of having just eaten any cookies, so he kept going back for more. He never gained memories, but he did gain weight. I can’t confirm this; I haven’t found any direct reports or evidence for it. However, there is a study where Jeffrey Brunstrom and his team, at the University of Bristol, told hungry subjects they’d be fed either 500 ml or 300 ml of soup. They were then fed these amounts. But an ingenious set-up using discreet pumps meant that some subjects who were given 300 ml had their bowls stealthily refilled so they actually consumed 500 ml, whereas some given 500 ml had their bowls stealthily drained so they only ended up eating 300 ml.40
The interesting finding was that the actual amount consumed was irrelevant; it was the amount the subject remembered eating (however wrongly) that dictated when they got hungry. Those who thought they had consumed 300 ml of soup but had consumed 500 ml reported getting hungry much earlier than those who thought they had consumed 500 ml but had eaten 300 ml. Clearly, memory can overrule actual physiological signals when it comes to determining appetite, so it looks as if serious memory disruption can have a marked effect on diet.
3
Fear: nothing to be scared of
The many ways in which the brain makes us constantly afraid
What are you worrying about right now? Loads of things, probably.
Have you got everything you need for your child’s upcoming birthday party? Is the big work project going as well as it could be? Will your gas bill be more than you can afford? When did your mother last call; is she OK? That ache in your hip hasn’t gone away; are you sure it’s not arthritis? That leftover ground beef has been in the fridge for a week; what if someone eats it and gets food poisoning? Why is your foot itching? Remember when your pants fell down in school when you were nine; what if people still think about that? Does the car seem a bit sluggish to you? What’s that noise? Is it a rat? What if it has the plague? Your boss will never believe you if you call in sick with that. On and on and on and on and on and on.
As we saw in the earlier fight-or-flight section, our brain is primed to think up potential threats. One arguable down side of our sophisticated intelligence is that the term “threat” is up for grabs. At one point in our dim evolutionary past, it focused only on actual, physical, life-endangering hazards, because the world was basically full of them, but those days are long gone. The world has changed, but our brains haven’t caught up yet, and can find literally anything to fret about. The extensive list above is just the smallest tip of the gargantuan neurotic iceberg created by our brains. Anything that might have a negative consequence, no matter how small or subjective, is logged as “worth worrying about.” And sometimes even that isn’t needed. Have you ever avoided walking under ladders, or thrown salt over your shoulder, or stayed indoors on Friday the 13th? You have all the signs of being superstitious—you are genuinely stressing about situations or processes that have no real basis in reality. As a result, you then behave in ways that can’t realistically have any effect on events, just to feel safer.
Equally, we can get sucked into conspiracy theories, getting worked up and paranoid about things that are technically possible but incredibly unlikely. Or the brain can create phobias—we get distressed about something that we understand is harmless but we are massively afraid of nonetheless. At other times, the brain doesn’t even bother coming up with even the most tenuous reason for being worried and just worries about literally nothing. How many times have you heard people say it’s “too quiet,” or that things have been uneventful so something bad is “due”? This sort of thing can afflict a person with chronic anxiety disorder. This is just one way in which the brain’s tendency to worry can have actual physical effects on our bodies (high blood pressure, tension, trembling, weight loss/gain) and impact our general lives—in obsessing over harmless things, it actually causes us harm. Surveys by bodies including the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have reported that 1 in 10 adults in the UK will experience an anxiety-related disorder at some point in their lives,1 and in its 2009 report “In the Face of Fear,” UK Mental Health revealed a percentage rise of 12.8 in anxiety-related conditions between 1993 and 2007.2 That’s nearly a million more UK adults who suffer from anxiety problems.
Who needs predators when we have our expanded craniums to drag us down with persistent stress?
What do four-leaf clovers and UFOs have in common?
(The connection between superstition, conspiracy theories and other bizarre beliefs)
Here’s some interesting trivia for you: I’m involved in many shadowy conspiracies that are secretly controlling society. I’m in league with “Big Pharma” to suppress all natural remedies, alternative medicine and cancer cures for the sake of profit (nothing spells “big money” like potential consumers constantly dying). I’m part of a plot to ensure that the public never realizes that the moon landings were an elaborate sham. My day job in the field of mental healthcare and psychiatry is obviously a massive racket intended to crush free thinkers and to enforce conformity. I’m also part of the great conspiracy of global scientists to promote the myths of climate change, evolution, vaccination and a spherical earth. After all, there’s nobody on earth wealthier and more powerful than scientists, and they can’t risk losing this exalted position by people finding out how the world really works.
You may be surprised to hear of my involvement in so many conspiracies. It certainly stunned me. I found out only by accident thanks to the rigorous work of the commenters below many of my Guardian articles. Amid suggestions that I am the worst writer in all of time, space and humanity, and I really should go and do unspeakable physical acts with my mother/pets/furniture, you will find “proof ” of my nefarious and manifold conspiracy involvement.